


grace is just weakness (or so I’ve been told)

by gingergenower



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Off-screen Deaths, Post 2x07, Spoilers, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 16:58:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8675386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergenower/pseuds/gingergenower
Summary: Supergirl can't save everyone every time.





	

Alex already got sent away, it’s not like Mon-El thinks he has much chance of success. It just seems like she shouldn’t be alone.

Kara’s sat on a desk in an empty conference room, head hanging down, cape trapped underneath her. She doesn’t so much as stir when he closes the door behind him, and he wanders over and hops up to sitting on the desk next to her, fingers messing with the edge of his sleeve.

The quiet doesn’t drag, because he can hears her calm her breathing down to steady, its pace slowing, but her breath hitches and she’s sobbing all over again, shoulders shaking, her whole body wracking with it. He doesn’t reach out, doesn’t say anything, there’s nothing either of them can do except wait it out. He blinks when she looks up.

Her eyes are red, and her face is so pinched it’s like she’s trying to hold in the grief.

“Sixteen,” she says.

“Seventeen,” he says, and she breaks all over again, arms wrapping around her chest and curling inwards, trying to hold herself together. He keeps going. “They pulled someone out further down the river.”

“I didn’t- I didn’t-”

Finally, he moves, tucking her under his arm and guiding her to resting her head against him. “It wasn’t your fault, Kara.”

“I- I should have-”

“You did what you could.”

“I didn’t, they’re _dead_ , those kids they’re _dead_ -” She’s starts convulsing, shoving him away, and he might be the only person in the building who can hold her tighter than she can push. He waits until she gives up, ignoring the punch she lands, staring up at the ceiling and hoping she stop screaming, but when she gives up she’s crying all over again.

He waits, because all he can offer her now is patience, and he strokes her hair.

“You got fourteen of them out.”

“I should’ve got more-”

“You got as many as you could.” Using the corner of his sleeve, he touches away the fresh tears that bleed down her cheeks. “You know, we used to have a saying on Daxam. Roughly translated, ‘if you want to lose, be kind’.”

She blinks up at him.

“It’s not supposed to be- you could still be kind. But it was generally thought it was weakness, and that in being kind you had to accept defeat. 

“You are the kindest person I believe I’ve ever met. Daxam was home, but I don’t think we knew what being kind _was_. Because if I know anything about you, the second your sister tells you she needs you, you’re going to get up and go. Kindness, on you… it looks like defiance. In spite of everything, you’re willing to hope, and if you could’ve saved them you would’ve.”

She isn’t looking at him anymore.

“I’m not wise, but it seems to me now… we weren’t kind on Daxam because we were afraid.”

You’re everything I’m terrified to be, he wants to say, but she can feel it floating in the air between them, so he doesn’t need to.

She nods, once and then several in quick succession, pulling herself into sitting up.

“I can't- I can't. Yet.”

He nods.

“Will you stay?”

Reaching over, he takes her hand to squeeze it, but she holds on to him tight.

**Author's Note:**

> the running title of this was 'Kara is sad'  
> is that obvious  
> (I'll Be Good, by Jaymes Young, is where I got the title from)


End file.
